44 SEXUAL SELECTION : BIEDS. Part IL 



The males of many gallinaceous birds, especially 

 of the polygamous kinds, are furnished with special 

 weapons for lighting with their rivals, namely spurs, 

 which can be used with fearful effect. It lias been 

 recorded bv a trustworthy writer ^^ that in Derbyshire 

 a kite struck at a game-hen accompanied by her 

 chickens, when the cock rushed to the rescue and drove 

 his spur right through the eye and skull of tlie 

 aggressor. The spur was with difficulty drawn from 

 the skull, and as the kite though dead retained his 

 grasp, the two birds were firmly locked together ; but 

 the cock when disentangled was very little injured. 

 The invincible courage of the game-cock is notorious : 

 a gentleman w^ho long ago witnessed the following 

 brutal scene, told me that a bird had both its legs 

 broken by some accident in the cock-pit, and the owner 

 laid a wager that if the legs could be spliced so that 

 the bird could stand upright, he would continue fighting. 

 This was effected on the spot, and the bird fought 

 with undaunted courao:e until he received his death- 

 stroke. In Ceylon a closely-allied and wild species, 

 the Gallus Stanleyi, is known to fight desperately " in 

 " defence of his seraglio," so that one of the combatants 

 is frequently found dead.^'- An Indian partridge {Ortf/- 

 gornis gularis), the male of wdiich is furnished with 

 strong and sharp spurs, is so quarrelsome, '*that the 

 " scars of former fights disfigure the breast of almost 

 " every bird you kill." ^^ 



The males of almost all gallinaceous birds, even those 

 w^hich are not furnished with spurs, engage during the 

 breeding-season in fierce conflicts. The Capercailzie and 



" ]\Ir. Hewitt in the ' Poultry Book by Tegetmeier,' 1866, p. 137. 

 ^- Lnyarcl, 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist/ vol. xiv. 1854, p. 63. 

 *^ Jerdon, ' Birds of India,' vol. iii. p. 574. 



